What if it gave you a Valentine? Would that sweeten the deal? Thinkstock

April 11, 2013

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Light a few candles, throw on some D'angelo, and make sure all batteries are charged and ready to go, because things are about to get reaaaaaaal intimate up in here. That is, of course, if you're in the 9 percent of Americans who would, according to a new Huffington Post and YouGov survey, be willing to have sexy sex with a sexy-lookin' robot.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 adults (both female and male, of various ages and demographics), found that nearly one in 10 people would be open to getting down and funky with a humanoid android. What's more, 58 percent think that the next generation of fantasy machines will be lifelike enough that human-robot action could happen as soon as 2030.

Naturally, the dream of getting under the covers with an indulgent sexbot is nothing new. Last year in the journal Futures, a few roboticists theorized that by 2050, the majority of the world's bordellos and brothels would be overrun by battery-powered prostitutes, leaving the human kind largely out of work. (It'd be a good thing, too, since "commercial sex robots would be free of disease and reduce the trafficking of real people.")

The whole scenario, however, raises all sorts of thorny ethical questions with no easy answers. For instance: Is having sex with a robot considered cheating? 42 percent of the survey-takers say yes, that plugging in with a machine is a definite no-no if there's a ring around your finger. Older Americans (age 65 and up) constituted the majority of the opposition, with 52 percent saying that robo-sex easily fell under the infidelity column.

We're almost afraid to ask, but: Would you be open to getting down with a robot? Let us know in the comments.